大般涅槃經疏 1.46

1.46

Next, listing the assembly of bodhisattvas, which also has two parts (and so forth). Those summoned have six aspects, namely number, category, rank, name, praise, and conclusion. First, 'equal to the sands of one Ganges' is the number. Sūtras mostly take the Ganges as a measure because of four reasons: first, many people know it; second, entering it brings merit; third, it is the greatest among the eight rivers; fourth, it is the place of the Buddha's birth, so the Great Sage uses it often as it is his homeland. This conveys the intention of the four siddhāntas. Next, 'bodhisattva-mahāsattva' is the category. This is translated as 'mind of awakening' (bodhicitta) and 'great mind of awakening'. The Treatise [on the Great Prajñāpāramitā] explains ten meanings of bodhisattva: 1. completely teaching and transforming all sentient beings; 2. completely making offerings to all buddhas; 3. completely purifying all buddha-lands; 4. completely upholding all buddha-dharmas; 5. completely ensuring that all buddha-lineages are not severed; 6. completely distinguishing all buddha-lands; 7. completely knowing all assemblies of buddha-disciples; 8. completely discerning the minds of all sentient beings; 9. completely knowing and severing the afflictions of all sentient beings; 10. completely knowing the faculties of all sentient beings. With these ten gates as the foremost, there are further immeasurable asaṃkhyeya gates; therefore they are named 'bodhisattvas'. In the Pañcaviṃśati, the Buddha himself explains the meaning of mahāsattva, which also has ten gates: 1. one should produce great adornment throughout immeasurable saṃsāra; 2. one should renounce all that one possesses; 3. one should possess an equal mind toward all sentient beings; 4. one should deliver everyone through the three vehicles; 5. one should deliver everyone, and having delivered everyone, forget one's merit in delivering them; 6. one should understand that all dharmas have no characteristic of arising; 7. one should practice the six perfections purely with a mind of omniscience (sarvajñā); 8. one should train in wisdom to comprehend all dharmas thoroughly; 9. one should comprehend that all dharmas have a single characteristic; 10. one should comprehend immeasurable characteristics. With these ten gates as the foremost, one is named a 'mahāsattva'. Nāgārjuna explains these ten meanings: 1. 'Great adornment' means not calculating the numbers of days, months, years, or hundreds of thousands of koṭis of kalpas, but benefiting and delivering all sentient beings within saṃsāra. 2. 'Renouncing all that one possesses' means withholding nothing, whether noble or base, internal or external. 3. 'An equal mind toward all sentient beings' means that hatred and love, depth and shallowness, enemies and kin, are all equalized. 4. 'Delivering through the three vehicles' means enabling them all to reach nirvāṇa in accordance with their capacities. 5. 'Forgetting one's merit' means apprehending neither self nor other, and seeing neither the deliverer nor the delivered. 6. 'Knowing non-arising' means that all dharmas do not arise. 7. 'Practicing the six perfections' means practicing the six perfections with a pure, unmixed mind, dedicating them toward omniscience. 8. 'Comprehending all dharmas thoroughly' means thoroughly understanding all worldly activities. 9. 'The gate of a single characteristic' refers to ultimate emptiness; the characteristic of nirvāṇa is free from conceptual thought and discrimination. 10. 'The gate of the immeasurable' refers to the dharmas of numerical progression: one, two, three, four. With these ten gates as the foremost, there are further immeasurable dharma-gates; this is the meaning of mahāsattva. Here one should clarify the four kinds of bodhisattvas, as in the separate record where the text mostly praises the virtues of the perfect bodhisattva.